In the end, we still have to talk about this movie, the author of this article is Xiao Juan, I think, a girl, to talk about this movie, may be more suitable, after all, the delicate emotions of this film, they will have a better understanding.
Text: Juan
Alas, it's hard to say how much you like Call Me By Your Name.
Therefore, although the movie has been discussed many times, I still feel that I have a lot of words that I don't spit out and don't like to talk about. Even when I was writing, I felt very happy, as if I had relived it again.
The film has been evaluated by 110,000 people in Douban, that is to say, many people can't help but brush the Puqing version, but it is still recommended that you wait for the Blu-ray version to come out and brush it again.
Because, this is really a visual feast, an auditory feast, and it is very worth revisiting with better audiovisual effects.
Amazingly, though, even that bad picture quality doesn't seem to affect its look and feel... As of now, the Douban score of "Please Call Me by Your Name" is still 8.9 points, higher than 99% of same-sex movies.
That 99 percent even includes Spring Break (8.8), Merry Christmas, Lawrence (8.7) and Brokeback Mountain (8.6).
This is not necessarily a contest of quality, but a contest of popularity.
This is not to say that Call Me By Your Name should be compared to any of the above films, and good movies should not be compared in this way.
When it comes to love, I might even think that "120 Blows Per Minute," about the Gay Movement in France, is a work that is more likely to make a name for itself in the history of cinema, perhaps the same-sex theme that was more loved in 2017. It's about a revolution, and the film itself is a revolution.
But Call Me By Your Name is definitely one of my favorite movies of the year.
It's like a magic that evokes the most intimate emotions in your heart and immerses you involuntarily.
After the end of the movie, I still think of the pictures in the film over and over again; in the moment I open the song list, I am still buried by the memories that come to me, and I can't suppress the urge to cry.
It's like listening to a song, the whole brain reverberates in resonance, every lyric and every melody goes from the eardrum to the heart; or in just two hours, Li and the male protagonist Elio share a summer day.
The camera is his eyes and mine, so when his holidays and my movies and our good times are all over together, we can only stare at each other and cry silently in front of the campfire.
This is certainly not an accident. As a niche gay literary film, this film has become a rare hit in the awards season, taking four nominations at this year's Oscars. Most importantly, every nomination is well deserved and the key to the success of this film.
Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, James Ivory
This famous Hollywood director and screenwriter who has been publicly available for many years has always been known for his delicate, warm and beautiful literary and artistic films.
Many people will mention his classic same-sex film "Morris", but it is also important to ignore that the adaptation of famous works has always been his best play.
He has successfully adapted Kazuo Ishiguro's "Long Days" and E.M Foster's "Room with a View", which are also extremely delicate works.
The gentleman in "Long Days" is gentle and stoic, silently hiding his love for the housekeeper in his heart; in "The Room with the View", the love between the noble lady and the rude inferior man seems to be sudden and like a volcano, but in fact, it has long been visible in the details.
In "Call Me By Your Name", the feelings of youth and youth are also extremely subtle, restrained and cautious.
People who fall into first love, as if every detail is worth repeating and thinking about, and every contact is worth cheering. This is how the two tempt each other, carefully and cautiously.
At the first breakfast, Elio stared at Oliver rudely but indifferently eating an egg; ate this American who liked to say "later" with a duplicitous mouth at the table; danced with a female companion on the dance floor while inadvertently rubbing Oliver's body...
Every movement, every gaze, exposes the teenager's heart that is eager to move and eager to be stirred.
Nominated for Best Picture
Of course, it is necessary to mention the credit of director Luca Guadagnino.
He sees the film as the last in his "Love and Desire" trilogy, previously "I Am Love" in 2009 and "Holiday Thriller" in 2015.
He is accustomed to expressing in his films those passions that are either thin or undercurrents; he is subtle, classical, allegorical, and delivers a heart to the Italian summer, always so lazy and affectionate.
"I Am Love"
But unlike his predecessors, it's only in Call Me By Your Name that he tells the simplest story. Two people, one summer, seem to be idle and waste time; first love is the only main thread of this story.
Luca Guadagnino made a lot of drastic changes after getting the script, some of them out of cost compromise (for example, they had to go to Rome but the funds were not allowed), but most importantly, he deleted almost all the erotic scenes.
On the one hand, he hopes that this can be a family movie, suitable and should be watched by the whole family; on the other hand, he hopes that the audience can experience a "first love" with the protagonist completely from the emotional level, and he does not want them to have any discrimination or sense of inadequacy from the character.
And this purity has also become the most moving part of this movie.
The male protagonist, Elio, lives a carefree aristocratic life, he does not have to worry about financial problems, he will probably become a musician; his same-sex love will not be hindered by the family, his parents secretly match him; even the little girl who splits his legs forgives him in the end. He was truly a happy little prince.
But even so, in the face of his first love, he will still suffer from gains and losses, will be confused, timid, and self-doubt.
And his beloved American lover, beloved, flawless, as dazzling as the sun god Apollo, is afraid that he will lead a boy astray, afraid that this young boy does not understand love at all.
Worst of all, even if there's no obstacle in their world, they'll still be apart at the end of the summer.
If Elio really learned a lesson in life from this summer, that's probably it. He will grow up, he will love himself more and more, and the people he loves will eventually leave.
Nominated for Best Actor, Timothy Challemet
Probably no one would have thought that the young sweet tea that has appeared in many American dramas before and has played soy sauce in some blockbusters (such as matthew's son who is complete cannon fodder in "Interstellar") will also have such a delicate performance.
In the most acclaimed end-of-credit fireplace scene, he actually wears invisible headphones and listens to Shu's < vision of Gideon > while contributing to the almost three-and-a-half-minute-long eye-catching scene.
In those three and a half minutes, he had tears in his eyes, from a look of silence to an irrepressible pain, to an inexplicable smile, and finally even stared into the camera. The teenager's complex and unspeakable heart is like a secret, shared with the audience at this moment. Let me also stare at the screen for a long time, and I did not dare to look away.
And Amy Hammer played a silent but affectionate lover perfectly—what impressed me most was not how charming his blonde hair and blue eyes were, or how seductive and sinful his shorts and long legs were, but the attention and encouragement he gave to the teenager.
From the end of the day, his eyes were too gentle and too warm.
What could be more precious to a teenager than the affirmation of someone older than his admirer?
Yes, the most touching thing is that although every actor in this movie is very good-looking, even if the appearance is incomparably compatible with the role, in the end, it is their completely blameless performance.
Nominated for Best Original Song, Sophie-yo Stevens
One of his old songs, < Futile Devices, was first drawn to the director>, and then Shu was invited to write a song for the film, but he ended up writing two; he also remade a piano version of < Futile Devices > to better match Ellio's aesthetic.
Now it seems that these three songs all have their own meanings.
< Futile Devices > was written to Oliver.
And I would say I love you but saying it out loud is hard
I'll show my love for you, but it's hard to say it out loud
So I won't say it at all
So I was silent
And I won't stay very long
I'm not going to stay too long
But you are the life I needed all along
But you are what I have been looking for in my long life
< visions of Gideon > was written to Ilyo.
I have loved you for the last time
I've loved you hard for the last time
Is it a video? Is it a video?
Is this love just an illusion, just a video game?
I have touched you for the last time
I've touched you affectionately for the last time
Whether it's just an illusion, whether it's just a game
And < Mytery of Love> was written for their summer.
Oh, to see without my eyes
Close your eyes and still remember that time vividly
The first time that you kissed me
The moment when the kiss was first printed
(Lyrics and translation source @ NetEase Cloud Music)
It's hard to describe the magic of music in words, but the privacy of these songs is almost as much as the movie itself. Or rather, they have long since become one.
Finally, I would like to talk about the nostalgia of this movie.
Everything about this movie can be said to be classical.
In the small town of northern Italy in the 1980s, the aristocratic family of the old days, the lifestyle of the summer, will discuss philosophy, music, art, poetry all day long... It's all fascinating, but it also feels unattainable.
Even the soundtrack makes very clever use of classical music. The following interlude throughout the film comes from the nineteenth-century music master Ravel's "Mirror" suite, making this summer memory seem to be layered and dreamlike.
But the holidays will eventually come to an end, and you can't wait for the summer to end and then wait for the summer to come; and the life of the old European aristocracy is even more out of reach. Everything is out of reach, and beautiful because it is out of reach.
In a way, the charm of this movie lies in the Italian summer scenery and the magic that briefly pulls you into a very different way of life.
The beauty of this film also lies in the poetry in the bones. As the two metaphors used in the film, they are very subtle conveyances.
One was a seven-day talk read to them by his mother: the young knight fell in love with the princess, but he couldn't bear to talk about it, so one day he asked her: Is it better to speak or to die. Am I saying it or dying.
Such passionate, volcanic lava gushing love is exactly the feeling that Elio and Oliver had that summer, the whole-hearted, either-or love, the unique first love.
The other is the sculpture that Elio's dad explains to them: they are curvy and even ingenious, as if they are teasing you and making you can't help it.
"Greek sculpture" runs through the entire film, and even at the beginning of the film, the photographs of the sculpture are used as the foundation.
In ancient Greece, same-sex love between adult men and teenagers prevailed, with the elderly giving knowledge and skills while the teenagers gave their youth and commitment.
Today, looking at the statue of an ancient Greek naked man, I can only feel a primitive force and beauty. They can naturally expose their bodies and naturally show their curves, which is a charm in itself.
And perhaps it is the pursuit of the same aesthetic, or perhaps the desire to gaze in the mirror at their own daffodil complex in the past, making them choose same-sex love.
The large number of nude shots in the film is not only an undercurrent of lust, but also a lazy way of life of Europeans, and also a display of such primitive power and beauty.
Using art as a metaphor for beauty, I can't help but think of Visconti's "Soul Break Venice". It is interesting that as early as the stage of "I Am Love", some people commented that Director Luca was deeply familiar with the Visconti true biography and filmed the aristocratic temperament of Italy.
In "Soul Break Venice", the elderly musician Assenbach meets a beautiful teenager in Venice and is impressed by the beauty of the shape, the beauty of the human body, and the beauty of nature.
But he was ashamed of himself, and even thought that his art and intellect were vulnerable to such primitive beauty and desire, and that he was too mediocre. So he put himself on the altar as well.
But in "Call Me By Your Name", the perspective has changed. Desperate love also became vibrant.
The man who admired beauty and desire became a teenager, and although he was also desired by the beauty of form, he was still so young and he still had a long future, which was only the only way for him to grow up.
In moments of humility because he was in love with Oliver, Oliver said to him, I like the way you talk, but I don't understand why you always demean yourself.
And when he was cut off from Oliver, his father said to him, don't let your pain go away, and don't forget your happiness. Remember all the feelings.
That dialogue is really the finishing touch of the film. Even the second time I saw it, I was still warmed to tears.
Always be like a young man, with a fearless heart. To love, to give your whole heart. Don't be afraid to get hurt. Because insensitivity, feeling desperate and humble, is the most terrible thing, is the real old age.
So, after knowing that his lover was about to get married, and crying bitterly by the fireplace, Elio still laughed with tears.
Because he has been loved, he has learned to love; he has learned to be accepted completely, and he has learned to accept himself.
Because after that summer, he finally grew up.